Readers' Tips Summarized

New Titles in World Building Library!

Check out Expeditious Retreat Press' World Building Library,
a series of inexpensive articles and works of public domain
for the world builder in us all! We have released additional
titles concerning Tibet and India as well as a series of
articles on Fantasy Racial Foods.

A Brief Word From Johnn

GMail Forwarding An Option

Thanks to Gregg for a tip about GMail. For whatever reason,
Yahoo continues to filter and block e-zine issues. GMail
seems to be receiving them just fine, and according to
Gregg, you can use a GMail account to forward issues to your
Yahoo account, if desired.

If you need a GMail account, I'd be happy to send you a
sign-up invitation.

A Plea To Palladium Fans

Amidst controversy, Palladium is going public with a plea
for help: Palladium

ARS MAGICA New Release: Houses of Hermes - Mystery Cults

There are those within the Order of Hermes who transmit
secrets of magic incomprehensible to outsiders. Pre-eminent
among them are the four Mystery Cult Houses, gatherings of
magi Initiated into the same Mysteries. This book details
the Mystery Cults, including full details of their Inner
Mysteries.

Baby Steps In Campaign Setting Design

By Mike Bourke, Sydney, Australia

Designing a campaign setting is one of the most daunting and
rewarding tasks a referee can undertake. For a novice
GM, an established setting is probably the best choice, but
there will come a time when a GM wishes to create something
original.

Following are tips on how you might approach the challenge
of setting design.

1. Set Your Minimums

The first step is simple. Decide how much you need to do,
and do no more. As you proceed, ideas about the rest of the
world will come to you. Take notes (and by Odin's beard,
keep them organised), but stay within your minimum
boundaries.

My minimums look like this.

The Home Base: Where the characters start their
adventures, and where they will return to.

The Adventures: Are they hack and slash? Political
intrigue?

The First Adventure: Where is it, and what happens?

The Path(s): Between the adventures, and anything the PCs
find along the way.

The Context: How and why things are the way they are.

The PCs: How much do they know? How do they fit in?

The Players: What they'll need to make characters.

That's it. With this framework you can move on and flesh
things out, one baby step at a time. As you do so, keep your
framework in mind.

For instance:

The Home Base: A small town? A village? The capital of a
kingdom? You don't need to design it yet because we haven't
decided what the campaign is going to demand it include. As
an example, let's choose a fortified stronghold.

The Adventures: You can choose a theme, a high concept, or
a style (or all three). As an example, let's specify high-
fantasy with few traditional dungeons--all the adventures
are wilderness and urban.

The First Adventure: You'll need to be specific on this
one, but it's still just an idea. As an example, let's
choose a monastery that sunk beneath the seas, which I think
fits the high-fantasy setting we're going for.

The Path(s): It's easy to get sidetracked and bogged down
here, so keep it simple. Ask yourself, how can the players
get to where they are going? What will they need? For our
undersea monastery, they'll need some means of surviving
underwater, or of changing the underwater environment. And
that's it. Don't worry about the specifics; just have your
list of requirements ready for later.

The Context: This is where things get meaty, and what I
deal with for much of this article.

2. The Baby Steps Technique

There are two ways to develop ideas into a campaign. You can
try to create everything out of whole cloth, imagining a
complete world all at once, or at least conceptualising
major pieces of the puzzle that way.

The alternative is to proceed by baby steps, repeated over
and over, until the seeds sprout with enough content to get
the campaign underway. Those baby steps are:

Idea

Why

How

Who

When

Where

Implications

Approval

These eight simple steps are all you need to create an
inherently self-consistent and original campaign world.

Before we start examining each step, though, one caveat:
worlds generated this way tend to grow beyond the control of
their creators, taking on a life of their own, and a tone
that was not at all what was envisaged at the start. Without
the guidance of big-picture choices and restrictions, the
imagination is unfettered, and the outcome is anyone's
guess.

Idea

Step one is to have an idea relating to the first thing on
the list of requirements, the home base. It could, and
should, be something defining, but even if it's
insignificant, the idea and its analysis provides "sprouts"
leading to the broader campaign.

As an example, let's consider the following passage, and
look for inspiration:

"A 3rd level wizard with a 14 Intelligence can cast
continual flame three times a day, which means that, over
the course of a year, that one individual can produce 1,080
permanent magical light sources. With that coming from a
single low-level character, to my mind it again becomes a
question of why continual flame lamps aren't a standard part
of any large fantasy city, unless magic is so rare that a
3rd-level wizard is a miracle."
-- Designer's notes, Eberron Campaign setting.

Eberron takes the perspective that it is illogical in a
typical D&D setting for magical light sources not to be a
standard part of the architecture. Since we aren't making
Eberron, let's look at the alternative, and see where that
takes us. The alternative is that continual flame lamps
aren't as viable as they seem.

Why

Maybe there's a strong guild structure that does not want to
trivialise a high art. Magic might be outlawed, or seen as
blasphemous. It might be unpopular. Perhaps there is a
finite amount of magic to go around, so it is reserved for
more important and spectacular actions, which fits our
previous emphasis on high-fantasy and magic. Let's go with
that.

How

So, how is magic limited? We don't want to introduce new
rules to complicate things, and magic is a big part of our
campaign, so what we'll do is save this for later on our
"hard questions" list.

Who

If magic is known to be limited, then who can cast it? Maybe
those who can be trusted to only use it when necessary,
those who can't be trusted and do it anyway, and those who
are inherently magical. So, we have a magic licensing
authority, we have a criminal class, and we have magical
creatures.

When

We could ask when it became "known" magic was finite. We
could ask when magic became finite. We could ask when magic
became regulated.

Instead, let's ask, "when is it permitted to use magic?"

Not in self-defence, because if magic is in short supply
then those who can use it are almost certainly well-paid for
doing so, which means they can pay for other means of
protection.

In defence of the realm? Probably, especially if the
military action takes place well away from the kingdom. That
means magic would certainly be treated as a military
capability and its secrets zealously guarded.

In general, the more trivial the application, the less it
would be tolerated, to sum up the direction our thoughts are
taking.

In defence of the world, or the plane of existence?
Absolutely. So, magic has been militarised. However, by the
rules it is generally only useful by individuals, not by
armies.

What sort of people within a military infrastructure operate
independently and not in legions? Intelligence officers. So
mages are James Bond types, and instead of "Q" giving a new
piece of tech, he teaches a new spell. The evolution of our
campaign world has definitely begun, and our simple idea has
begun throwing off all kinds of sprouts already!

Where

If mages are spies, they need someone to spy on. Where do
they do it? We have already stated "away from home." So,
let's ask where are these agents based? It would need to be
somewhere well-protected. How about the home base for the
party? It's a fortified position, from notes we've already
made, so why not make it the headquarters for the mages?

Implications

We started out with a simple list of requirements for our
campaign: a fortified stronghold as the home base,
wilderness and urban adventures that emphasize the
fantastic, an underwater monastery, some means of breathing
underwater, and some means of overland travel. One single
idea about the nature of that fortified stronghold, inspired
by a single passage of text, has added a whole heap of ideas
to that list. Magic is believed to be limited. It has been
militarised as a valuable resource. It's used by
intelligence and covert operatives, and so on. We have put
aside one question for later: how magic is limited.

The next step is to go through the rest of our initial list
of requirements and look for any implications relating to
what we have now. The 2nd item on the list is the type of
adventures, and I came up with three possibilities:

The party is a special forces team operating under the
command of the military HQ.

The party is a group that's opposed to the military use of
magic.

The party are bystanders that aren't involved either way.

If the latter, any mage that joins the party will have to
come from the criminal subculture, or be inherently magical.
Each possibility is valid, and each will have a strong
influence over the campaign's style. The GM doesn't have to
decide yet, but should note the implications.

The first adventure will take place in an undersea
monastery. If the PCs are a special forces unit, the
monastery is a military target. Maybe there's a magical
treasure there to be retrieved, or maybe there's someone
there who is using magic that the party has to drive off.

Remember, baby steps. We're mapping out the potential
scenarios, and once you have the basis for the adventure and
its context, you can move forward, adding with each step and
deciding how the party is going to fit into your design, or
how your design can fit the party.

Another benefit of looking into all the scenarios is you
come out of it well-stocked with alternate adventures,
hooks, and NPCs. In our case, any opposition the PCs meet
must be water-breathers themselves because we've defined the
setting. Baby step, detail. Baby step, detail.

Our fourth listed item was some means of breathing
underwater. This becomes a piece of cake under our campaign
concept--they represent a magical high command, so they get
something from "Q". If we don't want the party to have the
items permanently, we can specify that they have to return
the items afterwards. What about overland travel? The only
consideration here is that it will have to be non-magical to
blend in with the populace.

Finally, are there any other implications from what has been
decided so far? One that comes to mind are the social state
of magical beasts. Are they enemies of the state? Does that
make beholders and dragons, regardless of deed or
affiliation, enemies of the PCs? What about extraplanar
creatures? Suddenly, the opposition to the Magic Authorities
is far more sharply defined!

One of the great strengths, possibly the greatest, of the
baby steps technique is you aren't doing everything at once.
Instead, just make a note of the fact. Just remember that
every time you go through the Implications step hereafter,
examine each of your new campaign elements for what they do
to your campaign.

Approval

Remember, it's your world. You can change it. Is the
campaign heading in a good direction? Are the players
excited? Are you? It's time to review and approve your
campaign. Replace what you don't approve of.

3. Making A Second Pass

There has probably been enough information generated from
one pass through the system to run a successful campaign,
but why stop here? Put real depth into your campaign world.
Start over at the top of your list of requirements with a
new idea and take it through the paces.

You will find you are generating items on the list far
faster than you are examining them for new sprouts. The task
will quickly seem never-ending! So, when is enough, enough?

There is a number of criteria that should be fulfilled
before you stop:

You should have a clear understanding of the local
politics, geography, and recent history.

You should know who the important populations are and how
they fit into things - certainly, each of the races
available as PCs should be covered.

Once you know all that, you know enough to start running
adventures, and should do so as soon as possible.

Before you can do that, you need to take what is a wildly
disorganised mess of ideas and notes and put them together
in some coherent format. Be organized. Use your computer,
if you can. Number and title your sections for easy
referencing. Make a table of contents. Take all those great
ideas and make turn them into campaign canon.

4. Keeping Secrets

How much do the players know? How much can they discover?
It's a complex issue, but for now make the most reasonable
decisions you can.

The easiest guide is the "need to know" basis. What do they
need to make characters and make good character choices?
Campaign world fundamentals should be treated as such, and
made available to the players. In particular, (and I've
learnt this one the hard way) will not knowing something
mislead the players about the nature of the campaign?

Organizationally, it's easiest to simply change the colour
of the text. Undecided in blue, hidden in red, known in
black. The alternative is to highlight the handwritten notes
with symbols, coloured highlighters, or whatever.

5. Briefing Your Players

Once you've decided what they need to know, make a copy of
the document and cut out the red. Then cut out the blue.
Then read over what's left. Does it make sense? There will
be obvious holes - you can plug them with a common belief, a
rumour, or a simple, "this is so far unexplained."

Copy (from your GM master document) anything in blue that
needs to be explained. Above all, emphasize this is what the
players need to know right now. By the time you've finished,
you will have a player's document and a GM's document.
What's more, the GM's version has been colour-coded to
remind you of what the players don't know and what they
might be unclear about. Print up copies and invite players
to start generating characters, because you're ready to go
adventuring!

6. New Scenarios

Take another look at your GM reference of the campaign
background. Anything in red is a potential scenario source.
Anytime you feel the need, take your original list of items
and generate some more, using the same eight steps, to
expand the campaign world.

The main reason to start adventuring as soon as you have
done enough background generation is to stay focused and
keep your ideas fresh. Remember how that list of sprouts was
starting to grow out of control? In the course of play,
you'll find yourself making things up off-the-cuff. The
players, and their characters, will have questions that you
should know the answers to, but didn't think of. And every
answer you give is locked in, so it's important to be
consistent.

7. Wrapping Up

This technique works. I have used it successfully to set up
multiple campaigns in multiple genres, twice generating off-
the-cuff campaigns (one of which has lasted for over 20
years), and once with deliberate pre-planning (after almost
5 years of adventuring, they are close to uncovering the
last of the original "red" sections and the secrets it
contains). It's simple and effective.

* * *

I hope these tips lead many more GMs to design successful
and unique settings for their campaigns, and gives the
novice GM the answers he is looking for. This is not the
only way. But it's one way, and that's better than none.

New Release: Midnight - Legends of Shadow

With the new Midnight supplement Legends of Shadow, the
award-winning Midnight campaign takes the players beyond the
battles and the hidden fights and reveals the most powerful
beings in the world, the legends of the Last Age: The Night
Kings. Discover why the Night Kings have not assaulted the
Witch Queen Aradil directly, and answer the question once
and for all...can the Legends of Shadow be defeated?

2. Keys Of A Great Campaign

From: Mike "Capt. D" Dockery

The other day I was rummaging through my D&D stuff and came
across "The Campaign." You know the one; the game that was
the high-water mark everyone remembers. This was not only
what I consider my personal best campaign, but the most
requested by players. It has been revised and played
numerous times throughout the years, but the pinnacle was
the very first time. So, why was this "the" campaign?

The premise for The Five Towers was actually fairly simple.
The players, each from a different dimension, were plucked
from their everyday lives by a group of multi-dimensional
elders. Their task was to find five keys, each located in a
different dimension. Then they had to find the corresponding
tower, which were also in different dimensions.

Throughout the course of the campaign the players traveled
to numerous dimensions, some of which were already
established (Forgotten Realms, The Wheel of Time, Ravenloft,
Dark Suns) and others were my own creations. I think mixing
my creations, from previous campaigns, with established
worlds the players were already familiar with not only
helped make it more real, but also more entertaining.
Traveling, as they did, they ran into NPCs they were
familiar with as well as their own PCs from other campaigns.

The players created some of their best and most well-played
characters for this game. I would like to think it was
simply because I am such a brilliant DM, and while this may
be true, I can't take all of the credit. I laid the
groundwork, the players made the details. Almost all of the
events that everyone remembers were the results of players'
decisions. My main villain was the typical power-hungry
sorcerer, and the original storyline was full of holes. Yet
this became one of our most cherished games.

I learned a lot from this campaign:

Even the most faulty campaign can be saved. If you screw
up, just react to your players and magic can happen.

It's not always a great main villain that makes a great
campaign. My villain's minions were more memorable than the
main antagonist.

Don't plan too much. I had created countless encounters
that were never touched because the players went in a
completely different direction. Most of the time this only
improved the game and kept me on my toes, as some of my best
ideas came on the fly.

Remember it's not just your game. As DM you may create
the adventures, but without players you've just got a stack
of lifeless paper. The DM is the plotter, and together with
the players, you write the story. I have played with many
DMs who will force you into following their script.

Don't be afraid to mess with the PCs. Some people may not
like it, but I found it can bring incredible gameplay
opportunities and PC character development. During the
course of the campaign the PCs switched bodies with some of
the villain's minions. One of the characters was put into a
situation where they had to choose between killing their
"real" body or saving their comrades. The player chose to
finish the game in the body of a goblin while the rest of
the group returned to their original bodies. Never once did
I hear a complaint.

Bend the rules. While I think the rules are important,
they shouldn't hold the game back. If a rule will interfere
with the flow of the game, bend or break it. If you do this,
be consistent--that rule is broken for the rest of the
campaign.

Most importantly, have fun. After all, that is what it's
all about. Don't get so wrapped up in creating or playing a
perfect game that you lose sight of why you are playing.
Even the simplest of games can be great if you have fun.

4. Music To Game By

From: Dave McKay

Hi Johnn,

There have been some great Reader's Tips in previous issues
in regards to music for playing during gaming sessions. I'd
like to share what I've been able to come up with.

I currently have produced 10 CDs of music for my gaming
sessions. My first disc is a mix of music that I was able to
put together from some favorite tracks off of soundtrack CDs
I own. I was also able to find mp3 tracks available online
at no charge from various artists and computer and video
game websites.

From that point, I discovered many official computer game
sites that offer downloads of mp3s from the game
soundtracks.

Simply by going online and going to the links offered on my
installed PC games I was able to find hundreds of mp3s and
dozens of complete soundtracks. Even today, by clicking a
link from your site, I discovered 20 mp3s of music that
would suit a sci-fi setting, and many of those tracks will
do fine for fantasy.

Here are some tips to for those looking to create their own
gaming music library:

Start with what you have. I have a couple of dozen
soundtrack albums on CD. I simply ripped the tracks I wanted
into my PC using my media software. Many GMs I'm sure may
have their CD library ripped onto their PCs/Macs or laptops.
I had also located some interesting mp3s online by visiting
websites of computer games that I have. I also found music
on the website of a major RPG publisher. You can also find
music in your installed computer games. I then arranged
those tracks in my media software. From there I burned a CD.

Find new sources. My online experience showed me that
there is lots out there on the web in terms of gaming music.
From the sites of games there are links to others. I found
mp3s and complete soundtracks available. I also discovered
online RPG music radio. They maintain a library, and many of
the albums and artists have links to their home sites where
you'll find lots of stuff. From surfing and Googling I was
able to come up with hours of music. I have not used
everything I downloaded and I produced 6 more CDs with about
440 minutes worth.

Open up the bank vault. One of my favorite game music
composers is Jeremy Soule. From visiting his website I found
an exclusive game music site (it's fairly new, but the music
that's offered is great) that offers soundtracks for popular
RPG style computer games. You have to purchase the music but
it's well worth it.

I use PayPal, and even if I didn't have a credit card, I
would simply have to wait a few days while PayPal debited my
bank account for the purchase. Once the music is downloaded
you download a licence (part of the purchase) and you can
burn the soundtracks to CD and/or synch them to a device
such as an iPod or MP3 player. Some devices can be jacked to
play through conventional/portable stereo systems.

Anatomy of my library. Here is a list of artists, game
soundtrack music, and other sources:

Jeremy Soule - he has produced music for many popular game
titles.

Hans Zimmer - his many movie soundtracks range from
modern, ancient Rome, and pirates. Titles include Blackhawk
Down, Gladiator, King Arthur, Pirates of the Caribbean.

Howard Shore - composer of the Lord of the Rings
soundtracks.

Midnight Syndicate - they've done several albums including
a deliberate album for D&D.

Za Frumi - very dark

Kirill Pokrovsky - a Russian composer of much game
soundtrack music

Jon Hallur - composed many pieces for a MMORPG called EVE.

Radio Rivendell - a great 24/7 online radio with an
extensive library. Those that game with a computer in
location with their session can simply tune-in. A great
resource for links to albums, composers, and game
soundtracks.

Directsong.com - this is the site I mention in Point 3.

Download.com - there is much free music from amateur and
semi-professional artists.

The thing I enjoy about finding game soundtracks and free
amateur stuff is that it tends to be fresh and can set a
definite ambience for your sessions. It's all well and good
playing the movie soundtracks, the classics, your favorite
rock group, (or Irish Celtic stuff in my case), but it does
seem to be too familiar, and your players will ignore the
possible moods you are trying to set. I'd get comments about
"Dave playing his Irish 'crap'" (this was, of course, a
tease) and I got the point that they were tired of hearing
music they did not fancy that much.

You can create playlists/CDs of different themes just as
they do in computer games. Think of movies for example.
Everyone recognizes Luke Skywalker by his theme, the
Imperial March, for the Empire and Darth Vader. The Hobbits
are evoked when you hear the rollicking medleys that
accompanied them on screen. Just set your mind to it and
don't be afraid to experiment.

New Release: Renegade Cleric's Tome

What do you do when your cure serious wounds just isn't
enough to get your friend back in the fight? What happens
when your summoned minions are swatted away like flies? What
happens when you realise that you are out of options and
your back is firmly against the wall...You reach for the
Renegade Cleric's Tome!

The Renegade Cleric's Tome is packed full of spells collated
from the cream of renegade stock, including many updated and
expanded favorites from the extensive Mongoose archives.
It's the essential choice for any divine spellcaster that
knows when the dirt really hits the fan, you're going to
need more than simple orisons to save your skin.